This document summarizes a presentation given at the 5th Bloomsbury Conference on E-Publishing & E-Publications on June 30, 2011 in London. The presentation discussed research on how academic scholars perceive their blogs in relation to scholarly communication and preservation. The research examined bloggers' perceptions through questionnaires, interviews, and blog analysis. Key findings included that most bloggers saw their blog as part of their scholarly record and wanted it preserved, but many were uncertain who was responsible for long-term preservation. The presentation thanked various individuals and organizations for their support of the research.

1. NEW MEDIA,
SOCIAL SCHOLARSHIP
SCHOLARS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR BLOGS WITHIN
THE SYSTEM OF SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
CAROLYN.HANK@MCGILL.CA
Assistant Professor ▪ School of Information Studies
5TH BLOOMSBURY CONFERENCE ON E-PUBLISHING & E-PUBLICATIONS
JUNE 30, 2011 ▪ LONDON, UK

2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How do scholars who
blog perceive their blog
in relation to their
cumulative scholarly
record?

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
How do scholars who
blog perceive their blog
in relation to long-term
stewardship?
Who do they perceive
as responsible as well
as capable for blog
preservation?

4. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What blog characteristics
impact preservation?
What blogger behaviours
impact preservation?

5. UNITS & DATA SOURCES
BLOG
Questionnaires
Interviews
BLOGGER
Blog Analysis

6. POPULATION
Purposive Sampling
Academic Blog
Portal
<http://www.academicblogs.org>

7. ELIGIBLE BLOGS
History| Economics | Law | BioChemPhys
(29%)
125 Single-Blogs | 65 Co-Blogs

8. ELIGIBLE BLOGGERS
107 Single-Bloggers | 187 Co-Bloggers

9. QUESTIONNAIRES
RR 1: QI: 63% | QII: 46% | QI/II: 52%
Completed sample:
153 respondents
Outcome rates derived from Internet surveys of specifically named persons
from the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR, 2009)

10. INTERVIEWS
24 semi-structured
phone interviews
72 (47%) of QI & QII respondents expressed interest

11. BLOG ANALYSIS
Coded 93 blogs
Authorship Attributes
Blog Elements & Features
Rights & Disclaimers
57 to 63 Indicators Authority & Audience
(on/off blog) Blog Publishing Activity
Post Features
Archiving

12. results
12/48

13. OCCUPATION
%
post-secondary institution
BLOGGER

14. OCCUPATION
Distinguished/
Chaired Prof.
Professor/
Full Prof. + %
(n=58)
BLOGGER

15. AGE
years
mean real age
(range 25 to 70 years old)
BLOGGER

16. AGE
years
mean professional age
(range 0 to 39 years)
BLOGGER

17. GENDER
%
are male
BLOGGER

18. ESTABLISHED
PUBLICATION
AND SERVICE
HISTORY
BLOGGER

19. peer-reviewed article
conference proceedings
essay.article.op-ed (other)
book chapter book review
monograph (author) comment (journal)
book review (other) monograph (editor) textbook
BLOGGER

20. SERVICE
91% have
performed
at least 1 of
Journal editor/ 38% these service
associate editor activities
Manuscript/book 70%
evaluator
Journal article 79%
referee
0% 100%
BLOGGER

21. BLOG INSTANCES
%
publish to 2 or more blogs
BLOGGER

22. MICROBLOGGING
%
do not tweet
BLOGGER

23. BLOG HISTORY
%
first blog published to
BLOGGER

24. BLOG AGE
years
mean blog age
(57% between 5 to 8 years old)
BLOG

25. IDENTITY
84 %
8% 13%
Real name | Both | Pseudonym
BLOG

26. BLOGGING
%
update their blog 1+
times per week
BLOGGER

27. BLOGGING
%
published a new post
within the previous week
BLOG

28. POSTING
%
make all of their posts
publicly available
BLOGGER

29. POSTING
posts
Average posts per month
(2,726 posts published August 1-31, 2010)
BLOG

30. PRIMARY AUDIENCE
Everyone else 8%
students, family, friends, others
General public 32%
Colleagues and
61%
professional peers
0% 100%
BLOGGER

31. ENGAGEMENT
%
employ a post
commenting feature
BLOGGER

32. ENGAGEMENT
%
respond to comments
BLOGGER

33. ENGAGEMENT
%
post comments to other
blogs 1+ times per week
BLOGGER

34. COMMENTS
%
of most recent posts
had zero comments
BLOG

35. COMMENTS
So looked at posts
from 1 year earlier
BLOG

36. COMMENTS 2009
45%
40%
35%
30%
POSTS
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
0 1 2-3 4-5 6-10 11-19 ≥ 20
COMMENTS
BLOG

37. RIGHTS & USE
Copyright
Statement
(n=34)
Creative
Commons
(n=13)
%
feature 1 or more
statements or licenses
BLOG

38. DISCLAIMERS
Own
opinion
Not
responsible
Advice %
have an explicit or implicit
disclaimer-style statement
BLOG

39. COMMENT POLICY
Moderation
Tone &
language
Copyright &
licenses %
have an explicit or implicit
comment policy or guidelines
BLOG

40. EDITING
%
edit posts after publication
BLOGGER

41. … only 2 blogs included
a policy or statement
BLOG

42. SCHOLARSHIP
Public 100%
Allows use and
Scholarly exchange 94%
record
80%
Subject to
critical
review 68%
66% agree with
all three criteria
Association of Research
Libraries (1986).
Braxton, J.M., Luckey, W.,
BLOGGER & Helland, P. (2002).

43. INVITATIONS
%
… to present
BLOGGER

44. INVITATIONS
%
… to collaborate
BLOGGER

45. INVITATIONS
%
… to serve
BLOGGER

46. INVITATIONS
%
… to publish
BLOGGER

47. conference proceedings
essay.article.op-ed (other)
book review
book chapter
peer-reviewed article
book review (other)
monograph (author)
comment (journal)
monograph (editor)
textbook
BLOGGER

48. SCHOLARY LIFE
PROMOTION
GREATER VISIBILITY
WORK ENJOYMENT
TEACHING QUALITY
SHARING PRE-PUBS IMPROVED
WRITING EFFICIENCY NEITHER
WRITING QUALITY IMPAIRED
RESEARCH QUALITY
RESEARCH CREATIVITY
RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
BLOGGER

49. PRESERVATION
%
preservation for public access
& use into the indefinite future
BLOGGER

50. BLOGGING OVER TIME
About the same 35%
Somewhat less 25%
A lot less 17%
Somewhat more 14%
A lot more 8%
BLOGGER

51. if?
What
51/48

53. SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

54. Pretty
bad.
Devastated,
both emotionally and
professionally.
Very
sad.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

55. I’d do something
drastic [in response].
Mad as hell.
Pretty
peeved. Angry
& upset.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

56. I don’t have to
do it anymore. I get half an
hour of my
life back.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

57. Probably
have a drink &
forget about it.
Not welcomed
but not tragic …
I’d get over it.
Pour another cup
of coffee & get
Drop out … back to work.
until something else
comes along.
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

58. It would take an
extreme catastrophe.
How would
that happen?
SADNESS RELIEF DOUBT
ANGER C’EST LA VIE

59. next?
What’s
59/48

60. THANKS TO …
Dr. Helen R. Tibbo
Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway
Dr. Jeffrey Pomerantz
Paul Jones
Dr. Richard Marciano
Dr. Cal Lee
Dr. Deborah Barreau

61. THANKS FOR …
Beta Phi Mu 2010 Eugene Garfield Doctoral
Dissertation Fellowship
Institute of Museum and Library Services
(IMLS)
School of Library and Information Science,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

62. … AND THANK YOU
CAROLYN HANK
Email: carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
Phone: 514.398.4684
Web: http://ils.unc.edu/~hcarolyn
Slideshow:
QUESTIONS